196 VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



and inflammation in the parts affected, yet the occurrence of these causes 

 in any particular horse and at any particular time is mainly dependent on 

 the conformation of the leg, on the work to which the animal is sub- 

 I jected, on the weight he has to carry, and on his age. 



Highbred horses and those which are considered roadsters ?re most 

 liable to splint. Heavy animals and those which are not called upon for 

 fast work are not commonly troubled with them. 



But no cause of splint is perhaps more common than the ordinary 

 practice of subjecting young horses to work for which their young bones, 

 ligaments, and tendons are unequal. 



Horses at an early age may no doubt do a certain amount of work, 

 and perhaps may be none the worse for it; but the work demanded of 

 them is often in excess of the age and capability of the animal. It is 

 mainly from this cause that so many horses whose make and shape are 

 unexceptionable are affected with splints. 



The exostosis arising from these and such like causes usually appears 

 about midway between the knee and the fetlock, because the middle is 

 the weakest part in long bones. 



• Although some defect in conformation, or some excess of work re- 

 latively to age and structure are the ordinary causes of splint, yet in some 

 cases the growth can be traced to no other causes than an hereditary 

 predisposition. In such animals we generally find spavins and other 

 exostoses concurrently with splint. 



Symptoms. — Large splints are easily enough both seen and felt, but 

 the detection of an incipient or very small splint is often a difficult mat- 

 ter. 



The signs of splint are lameness accompanied with pain on the ap- 

 plication of pressure to the seat of the disease, also heat and throbbing of 

 the arteries of the part, and a marked increase in the lameness at the trot 

 over that exhibited at a walk. The lameness j^roduced by an incipient 

 splint is often excessive. In many cases, however, the animal goes sound 

 at a walk, though very lame at a trot. In cases of doubt, the horse should 

 be trotted down hill on hard ground, Avhen the increased concussion will 

 cause him to favor the lame leg. 



The lameness arising from splint is further distinguished by a very 

 marked dropping of the head when the sound leg comes to the ground, 

 and a corresponding jerking up of the head when the lame leg is brought 

 down. 



